Boeing Plant Tour

Tuesday, 29 May 2018
Gig Harbor RV Resort — Gig Harbor, Washington
Temps: 65F (18C) / 47F (8C)

It behooves no one to dismiss any novel idea
with the statement that “it can’t be done.”
~ Bill Boeing ~

After spending the Memorial Day long weekend at home, we were ready for another outing.  This time, our destination was 25 miles (40 km) north of Seattle … meaning we had to plan around the rush hour traffic that clogs pretty much every road leading north from Gig Harbor … especially on weekday mornings.  I don’t know if hopping on I-405N at the first opportunity helped or not, but at least we were able to use the HOV2+ and the Express Lane to ease our way north with minimum difficulty … and that was after delaying our departure for the 71-mile (114 km) drive until after 9:30a.

Well aware of the need for a late morning departure, we had pre-booked online for the 1:00p Boeing Tour at the Everett Plant … which actually has a Mukilteo address.  We arrived at the Future of Flight Aviation Center — essentially the visitor center at the plant and the starting point for the tour — a little after 11:30a.  Plenty of time to check out the exhibits.

After exchanging our online voucher for tickets ($20pp … discounted military admission), we first headed up to the Strato Deck, which offers an expansive view of the plant, with test-ready airplanes lined up on the far side.  No airplanes taking off or landing at the field today.

Pretty aircraft all in a row … waiting to be tested.
The gray tail identifies these planes as a military order.

Not far from the viewing terrace was a Dreamlifter cargo plane that was interesting to see.  Described as having the capacity to “haul the most cargo by volume than any airplane in the world,” this aircraft is the cargo version of a 747 passenger plane.  It is used mostly for transporting the eight major assemblies of the 787 Dreamliner from suppliers around the world.  Those parts then go through the final assembly process at this plant … or in Charleston, SC.

The Dreamlifter … a giant amongst cargo planes.

Photos of the Dreamlifter from signage on the Strato Deck.

In the indoor exhibit area, we found a selection of interesting displays, including a mock-up of Destiny — the lab module of the ISS.  We skipped the simulators, but did play with some of the interactive displays.

The GE90 engine doesn’t look so big when seen from above, but it’s all a matter
of perspective.  Take another look at it with Mui standing next to it.

Mock up of the Destiny lab module.   the one that is at the ISS was sent up on
the Shuttle mission STS98 in February 2001.  Ironically, that’s the mission we
went to see lift off from Cape Canaveral … but it was canceled at the
last minute and rescheduled for a later time.

Testing past and present materials used to build the various components of aircraft.

designing an aircraft … if only it were this easy ;-)

Playing with the systems on the flight deck.
There’s a mind-boggling number of switches and whatnot to juggle. 

There is no photography allowed on the actual tour — in fact, you can’t take anything with you … no purse, no phone, no nothing.  So, we took advantage of the included-in-the-tour photo offer before leaving the exhibit area.  A woman snapped a photo of us against a green screen and gave us a card with a number on it.  At a digital photo kiosk, we punched that number in, selected the background we wanted, and emailed the photo to ourselves.  Easy peasy.

The photo is a nice way of immortalizing our visit to the Boeing Plant.
The protective green color on the planes is a paint-like film that is
sloughed off with water once the planes go to the paint hangar. 

At the appointed time, we joined the 80 or so other people with tickets for the 1:00p tour, received our bus passes, and found seats in an amphitheater where we watched a short film about the history of Boeing.  It was here that our guide — and a uniformed security guard — reiterated the no electronic devices rule.  A couple of people tried to sneak them in anyway, but somehow the guides got wind of them and confiscated the phones before the people were allowed on the bus.

The 90-minute tour takes visitors to see two assembly areas — the 747, fondly referred to as the Queen of the Skies, and the 777/787 Dreamliner.  Both are located inside the world’s largest building (by volume) … 472 million cubic feet (~13,700,000 cubic meters) to be more specific.  To get to the assembly bays, we were loaded into two buses — each with its own guide — and driven across the property to a huge hangar-like building.  Along the way, our guide gave us tidbits of information about the company.

The hangars with the blue doors are where planes go to get their
‘pretty coats’ … the assembly buildings are barely visible on the left.

At the first stop — the 747 production line — we walked down two short flights of steps to one of the many underground tunnels that connect the various parts of the hangar.  Then we took a freight elevator up to the viewing terrace that overlooks the assembly floor.  WOW!  That was pretty much the collective reaction when we caught our first glimpse of the action below.  The 747s — there were 6 (I think) in two lines — looked like oversized toys.  Yes, that’s how big the assembly floor is.  As we gawked at the scene before us, our guide explained what we were seeing and the various stations on the production line.

Our next stop was the 777 and 787 assembly area.  We were transferred by bus to save time on the more than one mile of walking that would have been required to get to it.  Another connecting tunnel … another freight elevator … another viewing terrace.  Another WOW moment when we saw both types of aircraft going through the double-production line.  One of the differences we noted here was that the planes were white … the carbon composite fuselages covered with a gel coat instead of the green film used to protect the aluminum alloy fuselage of the 747.

No, we did not sneak in a camera … this is a screen capture from one of the
exhibits at the Future of Flight Aviation Center.  The 777/787 assembly plant
is similar to this, except that there are two production lines in that hangar.

Really, really amazing to see how far Bill Boeing’s vision has come in just over the 100 years since he built his first airplane — wood and fabric — in 1916.  Highly recommend doing the tour if you find yourself in the area.  It was fantastic to see the planes moving down the assembly lines … from the stations where they start out as little more than a part or two … to where they end up becoming full-fledged aircraft.

By the way, one of the questions that was asked on the tour … how much a plane costs?  The 747 has a price tag around $403 million … the 787 starts out at $200+ million.  Neither price includes items that are described as being owner-furnished … such as seats or engines.  The latter adds around $40 million each to the price tag!!!  I think I’ll hold off on ordering a plane for now!

Not wanting to deal with the southbound rush hour on the drive back to Gig Harbor, we had an alternative plan to get home — take the Edmonton-Kingston Ferry.  At $27.05 for the car+driver plus one passenger, the ±½-hour crossing is not inexpensive, but it sure saves on the stress of stop-and-go traffic.  We did get caught up in a bit of a jam near Bremerton after we got off the ferry, but nothing like the parking-lot-traffic we would have dealt with on the highways south of Seattle.

Ferryboats have been active on Puget Sound since January 1, 1889.

the ferryboats bear Indian names, except those of the Evergreen Class.
This Northwest tradition is maintained in honor of the first
vessels to cross the Sound … the Indian canoes.

I took a photo of a sailboat framed by the ferry window.  The light was
really bad, however, so I processed it using a pencil sketch filter.

We arrived home around 5:30p.  A really fascinating tour made our day a truly great one.  Tomorrow we rest.

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